UK government set to launch £100bn offshore project

This week Crown Estate, which owns the UK’s territorial waters, will announce the winning bidders for nine regions.

It is believed the new farms are central to the government’s aim is for a third of the UK’s electricity to be supplied by wind by 2020.

The majority of the farms will be in the North Sea. The biggest is a 10GW site planned for Dogger Bank, 100km off the coast of north-east England.

According to the Sunday Times the winning bidder for the Dogger site, which is alone likely to cost £35bn, is a consortium including RWE Npower, Scottish and Southern Energy, and Norwegian energy groups Statkraft and StatoilHydro.

Start-up company Mainstream Renewable Power, is understood to have won the rights to the Hornsea site near the Humber estuary. Additionally both Eon and Centrica have been handed territories. 

At the event, UK prime minister Gordon Brown is expected to say the nine sites will be capable of producing more energy than the previous estimate of 25GW.